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Launch an Amazon EC2 Instance Using Windows PowerShell

To launch an Amazon EC2 instance, you need the key pair and security group that you created. You also need the ID of an Amazon Machine Image (AMI). For more information, see the following documentation:

If you launch an instance that is not within the Free Tier, you are billed after you launch the instance and charged for the time that the instance is running even if it remains idle.

Launching an Instance in EC2-Classic#

The following command creates a single t1.micro instance.

PS C:\> New-EC2Instance -ImageId ami-c49c0dac -MinCount 1 -MaxCount 1 -KeyName myPSKeyPair -SecurityGroups myPSSecurityGroup -InstanceType t1.micro

ReservationId   : r-b70a0ef1
OwnerId         : 123456789012
RequesterId     :
Groups          : {myPSSecurityGroup}
GroupName       : {myPSSecurityGroup}
Instances       : {}

Your instance is in the pending state initially, but will be in the running state in a few minutes. To view information about your instance, use the Get-EC2Instance cmdlet. If you have more than one instance, you can filter the results on the reservation ID using the Filter parameter. First, create an object of type Amazon.EC2.Model.Filter. Next, call Get-EC2Instance with the filter and view the Instances property.

PS C:\> $reservation = New-Object 'collections.generic.list[string]'
$reservation.add("r-5caa4371")
$filter_reservation = New-Object Amazon.EC2.Model.Filter -Property @{Name = "reservation-id"; Values = $reservation}
(Get-EC2Instance -Filter $filter_reservation).Instances

The following is example output.

AmiLaunchIndex        : 0
Architecture          : x86_64
BlockDeviceMappings   : {/dev/sda1}
ClientToken           :
EbsOptimized          : False
Hypervisor            : xen
IamInstanceProfile    :
ImageId               : ami-c49c0dac
InstanceId            : i-5203422c
InstanceLifecycle     :
InstanceType          : t1.micro
KernelId              :
KeyName               : myPSKeyPair
LaunchTime            : 12/2/2014 3:38:52 PM
Monitoring            : Amazon.EC2.Model.Monitoring
NetworkInterfaces     : {}
Placement             : Amazon.EC2.Model.Placement
Platform              : Windows
PrivateDnsName        :
PrivateIpAddress      : 10.25.1.11
ProductCodes          : {}
PublicDnsName         :
PublicIpAddress       : 198.51.100.245
RamdiskId             :
RootDeviceName        : /dev/sda1
RootDeviceType        : ebs
SecurityGroups        : {myPSSecurityGroup}
SourceDestCheck       : True
SpotInstanceRequestId :
SriovNetSupport       :
State                 : Amazon.EC2.Model.InstanceState
StateReason           :
StateTransitionReason :
SubnetId              :
Tags                  : {}
VirtualizationType    : hvm
VpcId                 :

Launching an Instance in a VPC#

The following command creates a single m1.small instance in the specified private subnet. The security group must be one you created for the VPC that contains the specified subnet.

PS C:\> New-EC2Instance -ImageId ami-c49c0dac -MinCount 1 -MaxCount 1 -KeyName myPSKeyPair -SecurityGroupId sg-5d293231 -InstanceType m1.small -SubnetId subnet-d60013bf

ReservationId   : r-b70a0ef1
OwnerId         : 123456789012
RequesterId     :
Groups          : {}
GroupName       : {}
Instances       : {}

Your instance is in the pending state initially, but will be in the running state in a few minutes. To view information about your instance, use the Get-EC2Instance cmdlet. If you have more than one instance, you can filter the results on the reservation ID using the Filter parameter. First, create an object of type Amazon.EC2.Model.Filter. Next, call Get-EC2Instance with the filter and view the Instances property.

PS C:\> $reservation = New-Object 'collections.generic.list[string]'
$reservation.add("r-b70a0ef1")
$filter_reservation = New-Object Amazon.EC2.Model.Filter -Property @{Name = "reservation-id"; Values = $reservation}
(Get-EC2Instance -Filter $filter_reservation).Instances

The following is example output.

AmiLaunchIndex        : 0
Architecture          : x86_64
BlockDeviceMappings   : {/dev/sda1}
ClientToken           :
EbsOptimized          : False
Hypervisor            : xen
IamInstanceProfile    :
ImageId               : ami-c49c0dac
InstanceId            : i-5203422c
InstanceLifecycle     :
InstanceType          : m1.small
KernelId              :
KeyName               : myPSKeyPair
LaunchTime            : 12/2/2014 3:38:52 PM
Monitoring            : Amazon.EC2.Model.Monitoring
NetworkInterfaces     : {}
Placement             : Amazon.EC2.Model.Placement
Platform              : Windows
PrivateDnsName        :
PrivateIpAddress      : 10.25.1.11
ProductCodes          : {}
PublicDnsName         :
PublicIpAddress       : 198.51.100.245
RamdiskId             :
RootDeviceName        : /dev/sda1
RootDeviceType        : ebs
SecurityGroups        : {myPSSecurityGroup}
SourceDestCheck       : True
SpotInstanceRequestId :
SriovNetSupport       :
State                 : Amazon.EC2.Model.InstanceState
StateReason           :
StateTransitionReason :
SubnetId              : subnet-d60013bf
Tags                  : {}
VirtualizationType    : hvm
VpcId                 : vpc-a01106c2

Launching a Spot Instance in a VPC#

The following command requests a Spot Instance in the specified subnet. The security group must be one you created for the VPC that contains the specified subnet.

PS C:\> $interface1 = New-Object Amazon.EC2.Model.InstanceNetworkInterfaceSpecification
PS C:\> $interface1.DeviceIndex = 0
PS C:\> $interface1.SubnetId = "subnet-b61f49f0"
PS C:\> $interface1.PrivateIpAddress = "10.0.1.5"
PS C:\> $interface1.Groups.Add("sg-5d293231")
PS C:\> Request-EC2SpotInstance -SpotPrice 0.007 -InstanceCount 1 -Type one-time -LaunchSpecification_ImageId ami-7527031c -LaunchSpecification_InstanceType m1.small -Region us-west-2 -LaunchSpecification_NetworkInterfaces $interface1